Marauders turn away Miracle 3-2

August 26, 2014

The Miracle opened to a 2-0 lead midway through the second inning. In the first, Aderling Mejia led off against Marauder starter Jason Creasy with a double down the right field line. Mejia moved to third on a single by Niko Goodrum. Travis Harrison then hit a grounder to short. Adam Frazier got the forceout at second base, but the turn to first was beat by Harrison and Mejia scored.

In the second, Stuart Turner belted a solo homer on a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left field for his sixth home run of the season and first since June 22.

After giving up a third home run in his last two starts against Fort Myers, Creasy (7-9) shut down the Miracle offense over the next four innings. Creasy went six for Bradenton and struck out seven with only one walk.

The Marauders chipped a run off the Miracle advantage in the bottom of the second with a two-out, RBI double by Raul Fortunato. On a 1-2 pitch from Miracle starter Brett Lee with runners at first and second, Fortunato flipped his bat on a pitch and kept a dribbler down the first base line fair.

Bradenton surged ahead with a pair of runs charged to Lee (10-5) in the fifth. With one out, Lee walked Jose Osuna. Then, Jordan Sterenka followed with a single into left-center to put runners at first and third. After striking out Justin Maffei, Lee surrendered a broken bat single to left by Max Moroff to tie the game.

Madison Boer replaced Lee on the mound for the Miracle, but allowed Eric Wood to reach on an infield hit and load the bases. With Jin-De Jhang at the plate, Boer threw a 2-2 pitch in the dirt that skipped between the legs of Turner. Sterenka raced home on the wild pitch to score the eventual winning run.

Boer went 2 1/3 scoreless innings, but allowed one inherited runner to score. Brandon Peterson tossed a scoreless frame in the eighth for the Miracle.

The Marauders pen got nearly flawless results from the combination of Bryton Trepagnier and Yhonathan Barrios. Trepagnier issued just a walk in two shutout frames and Barrios had a perfect final inning to record his ninth save.

The Miracle (78-55, 37-28) return for the second of a three-game series with the Marauders (73-60, 38-26) Tuesday night.